“Hot-pluggable” hard disk drives (HDD) are removable during operation in a computer or peripheral systems environment. A HDD is typically mounted in a hard disk drive carrier prior to installation in a system. A HDD carrier is a frame-like structure which attaches to the HDD to assist in its insertion into or removal from the system. HDD carriers also protect the HDD when it is outside of the systems environment. HDD carriers are typically constructed out of metal and/or polymeric materials.
A computing system may contain several HDD's, each of which may be readily interchangeable in the system. The HDD's are mounted in a HDD bay or chassis located within a system enclosure. During operation, the HDD's may vibrate, and the vibration can become excessive, particularly when adjacent HDD's are operated simultaneously. Moreover, as HDD technology progresses to faster rotational speeds and cost-reduction architectures, the vibration problems are exacerbated.
Excessive vibration may lead to decreased HDD performance such as recoverable and non-recoverable write inhibits, increased seek times, and increased read and write access times. Excessive vibration may also cause premature HDD failures that are not repairable. Examples include mechanically-damaged platters and read/write heads, mechanical wear on moving HDD components, and data error defects that cannot be corrected through the use of software tools.
Existing technologies have primarily focused on dampening vibration due to the HDD itself, such as the vibrations created by the mechanical components of the HDD. However, other factors contributing to excessive vibration of HDDs have not been carefully studied.